Spent: A Comic Novel

 

Spent: A Comic Novel is a heavily fictionalized slice-of-life graphic novel by Alison Bechdel. Released 20th May 2025 by HarperCollins on their Mariner imprint, it's 275 pages and is available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats. Audiobook due out 15th July 2025 from the same publisher.

To the folks who already know the author's work, this is much the same: intricate, intimately drawn, wryly self-deprecating, sardonic. To folks who aren't familiar, this is probably not the best introduction as it lies outside her oeuvre's development up to this point. This book is a lot calmer, less outraged/angsty, and more gently introspective (and almost not-at-all scathing). 

The audiobook (what an odd concept, an audiobook of a graphic novel), isn't entirely successful as a standalone. It's narrated by the author herself, along with a large cast of supplementary voices and is enhanced by music and sound effects. It's certainly possible to mostly get the gist of what's going on, but really should be listened to in conjunction with the graphic novel at the very least. Unabridged recording run time: 4 hours, 39 minutes.

Four stars (three for the audiobook). It would be an excellent choice for public or post-secondary library collections, home use, gifting, as well as making some support literature lists for selected classroom analysis (gender studies, writing, etc). It's enjoyable and funny/poignant in places.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.